The Fuel, the Fire
by TetrisEffect
Summary: Yami Yugi examines his being and the significance of his partner. Yugi Mutou reflects upon how much the pharaoh has helped his growth.
1. Chapter 1- The Fuel

It's been over two years since I published a fanfic. I never thought I'd be posting fanfiction, or if I'd ever return to Yu-gi-oh again. However, here I am. For the first two chapters, which are Yami Yugi's and Yugi's views respectively, it takes place before the Pharaoh's memories return.

I chiefly use manga canon. In the anime, the darker side to the series dropped off notably with the second series anime. I refer to the Japanese subs when needed (but it's not too noticeable, for I don't include the filler arcs). Most fans have never seen the Toei anime (season zero), and even less have read the manga. To me, the second series anime didn't emphasize a key element to understand Yugi and his darker side, which became far less present with how the dub messed with the canon.

Chapters one and two were revised on 1/9/2018 to fix grammar and spelling.

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Chapter 1- The Fuel

Where had he been until his savior breathed life and consciousness into him?

His whereabouts remained somewhere within the pieces of the puzzle, he and Partner had concluded. He attempted to give the inky blackness an identity, a form so that Partner could understand his prison easier. Whenever he meditated on what lost world he had been consumed by, he rarely had the strength to acknowledge the perceptions he had. In that lifeless land he slept in, he heard disembodied screams, echoes of past recollections he failed to make sense of, and voices speaking in strange tongues, the meaning behind their words lost to the ages. The cold, in that unknown dimension, destroyed any sensibility he had left from his displacement into the golden artifact. A negative vibration tugged at his soul for eons, and it had only been recently that he and Partner began to theorize what that force was.

Partner's grandfather had revealed that he challenged people that desired the golden vessel housing his shattered spirit to shadow games. His initial resting place was notorious for the hostile spirit within, his very own. The mystery behind the soul allured countless trespassers into the crypt, for his anonymity alone sparked more curiosity than the desire of the spoils from the tomb, which were sparse.

The ancient soul could not recall a single occurrence in which he dueled with grave robbers or archeologists. He wouldn't deny it. He punished these people harshly, despite being unaware of what he'd done. His heart skipped a beat whenever he acknowledged that some good-intentioned archeologists may have entered to just _try_ and figure out who he was. He had sworn upon himself that he wouldn't toss away potential help ever again towards the same goal he pursued.

Tension rose within Partner whenever these bouts of reminiscing were brought up by the other self. The ancient spirit knew exactly what he had done to the people he penalized when he possessed his better half before the two began to interact. Partner expressed to him, more than once, that this wasn't the right way to exact justice or teach a lesson. It only made the darker self wonder, in shock, how cruel he may have been long ago.

His universe had been dark, but Partner shined a flicker of a flame into the spirit ever since he touched his golden tomb, the shattered millennium puzzle, at the tender age of eight. Once the other had completed it, he felt something delightful for the first time in millennia. He became overwhelmed by his vessel's memories, thoughts, and emotions which he believed were now his own. He used to think that was the day he was born, as he had no indication that he had a life before then. He believed he had been a split personality Yugi Mutou held within his heart, driven out by the completed millennium puzzle. Upon rationalizing he was a separate entity, he returned to being as lost as when he was snarled in the darkness itself. Almost. Partner gripped his hand, reassuring him with his compassionate demeanor, and pointed in the direction to travel next. They would work together to figure out another puzzle, his other self assured him. Their skills were unmatched if they worked together, and the spirit within the artifact again felt the warmth of his vessel's everlasting light.

Nonetheless, his consciousness reconstructed to become a composite form, and he vowed to protect his savior as compensation, and that sometimes didn't even feel adequate enough. Once he learned of his true ancient identity at a museum with Partner's friend, he quietly pieced together that his personality remained relatively intact despite being trapped in the shadows for thousands of years. He must have loved and protected the land of ancient Egypt, and acknowledging his less than wholesome punishments to his opponents, he may have been quite ruthless as pharaoh.

None of it surprised him. Partner and his friends seemed to have become a "country" to monitor as he once did. He talked it over with Partner when his kinder self figured out that he had been withholding this information. His discovery of himself led him to question why a king would have been wiped from history. Had he done something heinous? No, his orchid-eyed friend asserted. Of course, the younger soul would say that. He just couldn't help but wonder why his own life in ancient times was contrary to the one he experienced now, a regular teenager without any royal privileges or prestige. Being trapped in darkness may have been his punishment, but what was this experience now? His turn to redeem himself?

He didn't know what else to offer his twin flame of a comrade. He had nothing but wanted his savior to have everything- anything he believed he never had himself. Partner shook him from his dreamless sleep, guiding him from the deepest corridors of his stale, headstrong way of performing business. He showed him the bitterness of defeat to accept what winning really was. He showed him humility when his arrogance reared its ugly head. He showed him compassion, for he told him their enemies transformed their suffering into malicious deeds.

Partner's pure motives and considerate actions juxtaposed his own, like the opposite sides of a coin. They were two parts of a whole, but with vastly different projections featured on both sides.

He was a proclaimed dead perennial that had been nourished back to life. Wherever he walked, he wielded his partner's flame like that of the torches he numerously held in the brief glimpses of his previous life. The dark corridors of his mind and of the world no longer brought as much fear into his heart if he saw what was lying before him. His partner was his most valued advisor, pointing out and finding faults in his logic.

Partner's flame wasn't always the brightest, but the light it emanated was ample enough. Partner had mentioned that with no darkness, one would never cherish the phenomenon that was light. Unfortunately, the ancient self could not carry said torch aloft forever, and when he realized such a thing, he wondered when he would need to release it, its purpose having been spent.

He was not yet ready for such an occurrence, and anticipated the event's coming arrival with bated breath, as he became frightened of losing his way again. He refused to envision groping and feeling his way through the blackness he had endured for thousands of years. He couldn't fathom the pain of losing Partner, his friends, and the memories of them, akin to the instance that led him to this point, 3000 years ago…

Partner explained his theory of unorthodox reincarnation to him during one of their many conversations where the duo tried to make sense of how they were tied together. He did not want to part with what he thought was the sensitive side of his soul. He did not want Partner's heart to harden to the evils of the world. He used to fear the isolating darkness, but now he feared what said darkness would afflict upon the other self. Was the younger soul strong enough to remain upstanding and dauntless without his presence?

Was _he_ strong enough to conquer his fear of eradication in the void he had been entombed within?

He knew he was the darker soul for quite some time. The abyss he slept in seeped into his being, no doubt. It was a part of his essence. However, he loved the light like a moth to a flame, fluttering about the heat and radiance it emanated, constantly returning to it when led astray. The longer he remained alongside his companion, the more his devious behaviors purified. Outstandingly, Partner had yet to succumb to the ancient king's murkiness. Perhaps the younger soul really did have a chance on his own. The other's strength could be seen, but most haven't seen it.

Like Partner told him, "I will be the light to guide you through the darkness."

On the day they reached equilibrium, he would no longer fear the effects of darkness for Partner or himself. For eternity, they would _bask_ in warm, clean light.


	2. Chapter 2- The Fire

Chapter 2- The Fire

Where had he been before his stronger self entered his life?

Most of the time he remained by himself in the corner of a room, playing with a game that he should have outgrown when he emerged into his teens. The friends he had in childhood had abandoned him for his innocent demeanor remained, and they found it embarrassing to remain around such a child like he was. The only friend he carried into high school was Anzu, a girl that eventually became his prime crush. He was alone and left behind by in the majority of his peers. His interests didn't resonate with anyone he spoke to, and the stature of his physical self, as well as his emotional state, left him to become a target to people that wanted an easy victim to harass.

His upbringing in his grandfather's shop led him to fancy games ever since he could comprehend the rules. He discovered at a young age the sheer amount a person could learn about another based on how he played a game.

He often compared his life to a game. In his opinion, he wasn't playing it too well.

The aforementioned bullying he dealt with, as well as the lack of supporting friends, rendered him with low confidence. He wanted to not be so meek, quiet, and insignificant. However, he didn't know exactly how to shed his fragile skin and grow into the respectable person he desired to become. He'd love to become stronger, assured, and trust his abilities, but his mind prompted the same question.

"How can you become that, Yugi, when you got no one to support you, not even yourself?"

Sure, his grandfather and mother had faith in him, but neither proactively pushed him towards his goal. Unbeknownst to the teenager, they believed that Yugi would one day find that strength hidden within himself, for they had set him up since childhood to be the kind soul he already was. His gentle heart remained intact despite how many times others played with it. That was a strength that Yugi thought was a flaw.

He took to the cusp of adulthood to recognize that prowess, and learned it though none other than… _him._

He had been alongside him ever since Yugi found the curious golden box which reclined on a shelf away from customers in the Kame Game's storeroom. Upon finding the treasure, the eight-year-old Yugi carefully examined the golden case, none of the symbols on the box familiar to him. The treasure was covered in dust from the years it remained untouched. Why did his grandfather have this box sitting around if it served no purpose but some decoration in the storage room?

He promptly took the box to his grandfather, inquiring to his elder about the relic. Yugi's grandfather hesitated for a brief moment, but he allowed Yugi to have a "brief glimpse" at the puzzle which evidently meant that Yugi could attempt to complete it.

Yugi had initially wondered why his grandfather was so willing to allow a small boy to play with an ancient golden puzzle. During his early teen years, he was told that the script said that the one to solve the puzzle would inherit its darkness and power. He would gain the power of the shadow games. His grandfather had to have known something else regarding the puzzle, but he remained quiet. Occasionally while Yugi was working on it, he caught his grandfather glancing at him askew, his eyes inattentive, like he recalled something…

The puzzle was a frustrating piece of work. However, Yugi never lost his interest in trying to solve the artifact, for working on it always brought him a source of comfort. It was not like a jigsaw puzzle… time after time Yugi believed his eyes beguiled him and swore the pieces would change _themselves_. Other times he would touch the pieces and suddenly feel calming, pleasant sensations.

Often when he was stressed he would mechanically return to the puzzle to feel that comforting satisfaction. Such instances happened several times until it ballooned to a student threatening to make him pay a lump sum of cash for being a bodyguard he never asked for. Unable to effectively deal with the scenario, for he didn't have the money nor the power to put the student in his place, the puzzle lured him once again. He was one piece away, and then…

There was not another piece.

Yugi became horror-stricken. He had almost achieved victory to be suddenly denied. He tore apart his room in a mad frenzy attempting to find the sole piece of the puzzle he needed. He sighed in defeat after his rampage ended, his room now a mess. He felt stupid. He worked on the puzzle for so long and expected it to give him his one and only wish- true friends. He wondered if that expectation rendered him psychotic. Hell, an ancient artifact that brought positive change into his life? He believed in it that much?

The universe must have heard of Yugi's misfortune, for his grandfather approached his room shortly after, and in his hand, was the last piece he needed. It featured a central eye, which he learned was the eye of Wadjet. He never regarded the power of that symbol until much later. A young man found it and returned it to his grandfather, and he didn't leave a name. The stranger departed curtly, soaked to the bone from rain, despite the day being dry. He probably wanted to return home to change his clothes, Yugi reasoned. The stranger, however, was soon to leave a great impression on Yugi's life, Yugi would come to know.

His grandfather strolled away, leaving the teenager alone as Yugi returned to the incomplete puzzle, as if not to spoil the moment to come. This was it! He had always imagined what would happen upon its completion. Sitting in the chair at his desk, his hands shook with anticipation as he awaited the results. Any thoughts about the overbearing bully he would need to deal with the next day were extinguished from his mind.

The remaining piece fit into the slot with a satisfying click, and he felt a peculiar sensation of bliss swelling within him as if its capacity dared to overwhelm what he was capable of feeling.

Then his vision faded into darkness as if he closed his eyes and was lulled to sleep.

He originally believed that no negative consequences were involved in solving the puzzle. His new friendship with Jounouchi, and soon after, Honda, proved to him that his wish was granted. It took a few weeks of Yugi, as well as his friends, getting in and out of dangerous situations to realize not all was as it seemed. His puzzle-solving mind soon rationalized something else was behind his getting out of these dangerous situations.

He reached the point when he could not tell the difference between natural sleep and when something or someone forced him into that state. He became worried, frightened even, of these occurrences. When his emotions bubbled up within him, whenever he was stressed, angry, or disturbed, he would forget.

What was wrong? What was happening to him?

He became terrified. He felt something stirring within his being, elsewhere, a place he couldn't enter. What was it? Ever since he completed the millennium puzzle, he was detecting vibrations within himself that was not his own but imitated his feelings very well.

He no longer faced mere bullies. He was facing enemies that threatened the lives of him and his friends. The puzzle granted his wish of companions, but any reverse side to that coin he had disregarded. "He who solves me will inherit the shadow games, and my dark knowledge and power…"

Who were these words referring to? Pieces of gold didn't have a consciousness, right?

He expressed to his friends that he must be losing his mind. Each day of his life ever since he completed the pendant, there seemed to be a second voice whispering in his head, like he developed another identity. He was fine for years, besides being lonely and bullied, but this realization struck Yugi with pure terror. Was he going to lose his friends if he expressed that he had another personality that coaxed him subconsciously what to do? He used to be a vigilant person, wary of risks and of danger, but now he often stepped right into it, without any qualms that his safety was at risk.

Despite his fears of his closest companions abandoning him, they comforted him. Jounouchi, Anzu, and even his troubled rival, Kaiba, had witnessed that Yugi seemed to have another face. A serious, confident, and strategic one, divergent to the regular, humble Yugi that was more present.

The day his other self saved him and his friends from death in a shadow game with a similar dark being, he became certain the spirit would protect Yugi at all costs. As expected, Yugi trusted him whenever things became awry.

He let that other dominant being run the show, perform tasks for him when Yugi felt too weak to, which was the majority of the time. However, his passiveness was his plight. He became lax with trusting this other being, and he realized this when his other self was willing to kill another person to avoid a loss.

Yugi snapped awake from the curling of his heart, sensing something wasn't right. _He_ would end up as the one responsible for the incident, not the other self. Literally a man possessed, he channeled his panicked emotions bluntly to his other self, and he curtly understood the message. How inconsiderate was that other being, willing to assist in suicide for victory? For Yugi's grandfather to return to him, he couldn't just mow down other opponents like a relentless marauder. Killing a person was out of the question.

He became terrified again of that other self. Who was that spirit that took over for him? His inverse persona was just that, his opposite, which provoked Yugi to question, based on his own self, if he should trust him. Their purpose of coming to the Dueling Island was to return his grandfather's soul to his body, which meant they were to haggle with Duel Monster's creator, Pegasus. Not Kaiba, not the troubled CEO who threw Yugi's friends into death games, ultimately leading the tall, arrogant individual to hold an opposition to his other self since then. Kaiba had his own troubles to attend to regarding his brother, and whatever bruised pride his other self would have from his loss, so be it. Did the other self even consider Yugi's feelings?

The other self he had come to admire wasn't all that he was cracked up to be. He needed to be monitored, for he was a high-stakes risk taker. Yugi knew that being only had his best interests in mind, but when it came to outsiders outside of Yugi's friends and family, that opposite self would tread into violent, dark waters. The waves were bound to pull them both under, where they would drown from shallow victories.

Unbeknownst to the other being, Yugi had been watching him prudently ever since he had trespassed Yugi's own morals after the occurrence on the castle's walls. He had forgiven the other self for his error, as he did with many people, for he knew a grudge was to become baggage, which would weigh down his hospitable heart, leading to the point of cynicism.

When the other self faced Pegasus, his other self was subdued by the same scrutiny that sent the Kaiba brothers' souls away. Yugi became bombarded by the stronger self's desperateness. His alternate self could not do a thing, and he thought that he was certainly going to lose a vital duel. A loss was not an option, as opposed to the duel with Kaiba. The other self needed to learn what battles were worth fighting the good fight for, and which ones he needed to lose. This wasn't one of them. Yugi, diligently observing, had been developing a plan to work around Pegasus's mind scan. Still, he had to transmit the message to the other self before he was to collapse…

Yugi shouted from within his soul room, watching his other self through the other's eyes as his stronger self's resolve was crumbling. Screaming from within his soul room wasn't enough, Yugi knew. He had to try another tactic- so he exited his own room, an action he dared not to do previously. In the hallway between their minds, he store at the foreboding threshold to his other soul. Intentionally intruding into someone else's soul was an intimate action, Yugi's instincts told him. However, there was no other way to grab his other self's attention. He held the handle of the door and took a leap of faith.

"Other me… listen to me!" Yugi hollered as he barged into the soul room of his other elusive self. Beyond the vast anteroom of the other self's soul, there were staircases in thousands of orientations, leading to unknown, presumably dangerous, places.

Surprisingly, his alternate self heeded him immediately. Yugi explained his idea to his other self, which was switching who was present in the body they shared so they could have a chance of winning against the game's creator. The other self believed in Yugi's idea, and he concurred that it would give them a chance. Ultimately Yugi wasn't strong enough to withstand the dark magic of a shadow game like the one with Imori, but his other self, as well as his friends, pulled through for the sake of the trapped souls.

To Yugi, that day was a monumental one. It was the day that he and his alternate self finally started to work together, to support each other, and to overcome obstacles jointly. The other self began to see Yugi as more than a fragile boy requiring his protection. That was the day they began to develop mutual respect instead of Yugi's one-sided admiration.

He leaped through fire, almost at the cost of his life, to remain by the other self's side. He was willing to go any length to hear the voice, one he could possess if he had the courage. He wanted to remain beside the other self for as long as he possibly could, listening and following his lead. His guidance was integral to Yugi's end goal. He wanted to become like that other self, and considering the other being understood the boundaries Yugi had set, he had the inspiration.

Ironically, he was an anonymous entity who had no idea who he was. The other soul expressed to Yugi that Pegasus explained of a dark presence in each millennium item. Whatever it was, neither could begin to fathom. That evil intelligence caused the other self to believe he wasn't a part of Yugi, but another person entirely. By definition, he was a nobody. Yugi went through periods in his life where he thought the same, albeit under completely different circumstances. Yugi had memories and an identity, something the other didn't. Slowly, Yugi acknowledged this, and he accepted that his past and bad memories were not what he was as a person. He need not stay confined to back _then_. He had a good chance of becoming much more.

The spirit was a being who acted like he carried the weight on his shoulders, suppressing his emotions whenever others prompted to tell him the issues eating at him. He had a surplus of pride, and sometimes he was arrogant. He had been used to getting his way until Yugi was there to stop him from overplaying his hand.

Yugi took a considerable amount of time to discover why his other self was so relentless during his duels during battle city. It was as if he was being driven by a goal and one that he did not share with Yugi. A goal was based on getting from here to there, something the other self couldn't do if he had no leads. It did not take long for Yugi to acknowledge that the other personality was keeping an agenda tucked away.

The other self couldn't shelter these issues from Yugi. Yugi had vowed that he would help his other self, despite the difficulty. Yugi inquired about what the other self was so adamant about since Yugi was able to detect a blocked sector within the other's mind that he refused to share. What was it?

His other self had seceded in defeat. He admitted that he couldn't trap his thoughts from Yugi. Yugi learned that his other self gained some insight into his identity while he was out with Anzu. The other self had once been a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, and ever since he saw the stone palette in the museum, he made it his goal to recover his identity of the memories of the life that he lost by obtaining the three gods.

It was a logical assumption to presume that he may have held a position in ancient Egyptian supremacy. A few walls of his soul room were adorned with hieroglyphics, disjointed as they were, and the puzzle's box came from a tomb in the country. However, being the pharaoh was another realm entirely, especially if he was an unknown, nameless one.

Using's Yugi's shared knowledge of the time period, the older soul told Yugi of his fears that he may have actually been a cruel king. He had died and received a fate worse than death, being a lost soul in a world akin to hell, without a name to allow himself to pass on peacefully. He asked Yugi, even allowing him to hear the details of the penalty games he had dealt to his opponents, whether Yugi saw him as a heartless, hostile soul.

Yugi recoiled with a stern no. No person was perfect, he explained, including a king, for he was still human at the end of the day. He was doing what he thought was right, but he didn't perform it in the right manner. Vigilante justice would have passed in his time if he demanded such, but his reign was three millennia ago. Laws and morals had vastly changed. Two wrongs didn't make a right, like when he scorched the criminal in the diner after the escaped prisoner hurt Anzu. Yugi told him it was not wise to fight fire with fire. You may escape the blaze a few times, but eventually, someone was bound to get burned. Whenever Yugi recalled the instance of Kaiba on the balcony, his other self understood the message when Yugi channeled his feelings to the old soul.

His darker self had inquired to Yugi why the two of them were tied together. Fate and destiny were solely the answers, and vague ones at best. The other self strived for a better explanation, his yearning for his lost past dominating his mind as of late. The more they conversed, Yugi figured out the pharaoh also used these sessions to relax, for after their opinions wore thin from conjecture, they both continued to interact after the subject dropped to something less serious. The spirit's attentive violet-eyes, listening skills, and smiling completion made Yugi realize how much the other self admired him. Only a few people valued Yugi's opinions enough to respect him by their paying heed. Why the other self thought so highly of a weak teenager that required an ancient king's help, Yugi couldn't fathom.

Yugi thought he may have solved the mystery of why they were connected. After his grandfather told him he had known about the pharaoh's presence for an indeterminate period of time, Yugi recalled a story his elder told him, a mere few days after Yugi first saw the puzzle. Yugi decided to tell his other self the fable. Yugi said the tale told of one being who was utterly alone, and it decided to split apart into two. However, the other half was just like the original, so playing a game, in this instance, chess, wasn't thrilling. So the two vowed to forget they had originated from one mind and became less like each other as time passed. They reached the point where neither mind recognized the other, and they saw each other as strangers.

The other spirit asked to elaborate further, for he could faintly grasp were Yugi was coming from. Yugi said they were just like the two characters in the story, but that story never had a resolution when the two met acknowledged their previous connection. In Yugi and his other self's, they had met together, and although they couldn't merge into one again, they were brought together again to contend.

The other self, skillful and wise, pondered this, and he told Yugi they must be unbeatable if they worked together as one, which had been the case ever since they had communicated with each other. Yugi agreed, saying that he was born to provide a vessel for the pharaoh, and that was he was reincarnated into a body like the one he had long ago.

"Partner, you said that we had been one being long ago. However, we are opposites of each other now so we can work together towards our destiny." He sat in silence, brooding before continuing. "With my memories back I will be whole again. Yet Partner, I think there is more for you in life than to be my vessel. What do you think you are here for?"

The other self's tone was ominous, as if he knew more than Yugi did, despite the duo knowing the same, even if they didn't speak of it. He wanted to remain with the pharaoh, for he liked his guidance as well as his company. The other being was like gasoline, fueling the two years of Yugi's life in which they had been together. Yugi had traveled to many places he would have never been if he had been on his own. He made friends that he connected with, and enemies as well, although his assailants usually had a grudge against the pharaoh. It mattered not to Yugi, as he and the other self shared the same friends and foes, the same body, and lived the same life. He was a vessel in regards to his role of housing the pharaoh as well as departing from his old ways to discover new lands, friends, and ideas he never would have had opportunities to do otherwise.

He had moved out of his port and into murky waters, but the teenager hadn't seen his growth yet, despite others noting his improving skills and confidence in himself. All along the way, he never lost his ability to be a kindred soul to his friends and adversaries. He hadn't copied his other self's behavior, or those of his friends, despite observing their examples. Unbeknownst to him, he slowly achieved those goals to becoming his ideal self selflessly and subtlety, in line with his unique personality.

With the three gods in hand, there was one task left to do- to obtain the nameless pharaoh's memories. Yugi was eager to help the spirit rediscover himself, however, the more they progressed, Yugi felt as like they were being forced apart. The pharaoh could be his own person with memories, separated from Yugi's identity. He felt the same foreboding as his other self, but perhaps it was for a different reason than his…

Yugi occasionally wondered how long he would have to chase his dream of becoming like him. If he became like him… would there be a need to have him around? Even if so, he may just have been a poor imitation of his ideal self, following him as if Yugi was lost.

His other self may be right. No ordinary person would have the responsibility of hosting another spirit in his own body. There was more meant for Yugi to do beyond that.

As Yugi got comfortable in his bed, his other self sat near him, silent and anxious. Yugi shed a few tears as he began to realize what the pharaoh said earlier…

With his memories, the ancient soul will be complete. If the pharaoh was still one half of a whole, he needed Yugi. If he were one, he wouldn't need Yugi.

His heart ached whenever the proposition of letting the king loose appeared in his mind. Was he strong enough without him now, as compared to when he first completed the golden relic? He couldn't tell. Why need they be separated?

The two halves of a former whole would never play games again, become distant, and their story will fade into obscurity… upon completing each other.

"For him to leave would mean…" Yugi's thoughts trailed off as he succumbed to restless sleep.


End file.
